Any portfolio that does not meet the specifications for submission is considered "irregular." Although the specifications are deliberately flexible enough to accommodate a huge range of work, it is expected that teachers and students will take seriously the limits that exist. Because of the inherent unfairness of allowing some students to bend the rules while other students adhere to them, portfolios that are irregular are handled in the following ways:

• Extra works submitted for Section I are held aside and are not scored.
• Works submitted for Section I of the Drawing Portfolio or the 2-D Design Portfolio that are larger than 18"x 24" are held aside and are not scored.
• Original works that are submitted for Section II or Section III are held aside and are not scored.
• If extra slides are submitted for Section II or Section III, those that exceed the maximum number are held aside and are not scored.
• Actual sculpture submitted for Section I of any portfolio is held aside and is not scored.
• Videotapes are NOT accepted. (Slides of stills from a videotape may be submitted in the 2-D Design Portfolio.)
• If too few works are available for any section, the remaining works are graded. The effect on the score given for that section (whether is is lowered and, if so, to what extent) is at the discretion of each faculty consultant. This is true whether the reason for the section being incomplete is that too few works were submitted by the student, or that some works were held aside because they did not meet the specifications.
• Actual journals and folding books may not be submitted. They will be held aside and will not be scored. Slides of books (or pages from books) may be submitted in Section II or Section III of the Drawing and 2-D Design Portfolios, as appropriate, or in any section of the 3-D Design Portfolio, if the books are themselves three-dimensional works of art.

Whenever an irregular portfolio is submitted, the student's grade report will carry a message saying that the AP grade is based on an incomplete or otherwise irregular portfolio. No one involved in the Reading derives any pleasure from holding aside work that, in many cases, is obviously the result of effort and concentration by the student. However, the basic issue is equity. For every student who submits irregular work, there are certainly many others who would also have liked to submit work that didn't meet the specifications, or who pushed themselves to create work that did meet the specifications. The procedures outlined above are therefore carried out uniformly and without bias.

See more Frequently Asked Questions.